Church Retreat

We had our second anuual church retreat up at Tanglewood in Lincolnville. It was such a joy to have the extended time for our relationshps to deepen. Having the weekend together gives us time to settle into conversations without the hectic buzz of Sunday morning at coffee hour. It feels as if we have all the time inn the world to enjoy being together in the beautiful camp. Saturday started rainy but our little ones showed us how to enjoy the great indoors.


By nighttime the weather cooperated and we settled around a fire pit for a drum circle. We told stories and drummed and sang. Ah, it brings me back to my youth when it felt like there was nothing more important in the world than sittting around a fire with friends, making music together. And you know what, it still feels pretty important.



We closed the retreat with our morning worship on the gorgeous golden sunny Sunday. We built on the work we have been doing with The Great Story, and it felt really grounding to be celebrating our place in the cosmos while standing outside with our feet on the earth. During the silent meditation, we could hear the wind rustling throught he birch trees. We also played the systems game to have an experience of interdependence. The Sunday was really beautiful, a fitting end to a great weekend of commuuity building. Hope to see you all at tanglewood next year.

Hey there;

I am picking the blog back up, hoping to post regularly. We are currently searching for an Acting Music Director and so music is on my mind even more than usual which is really saying something. Anyway, I wanted to pass on a few of the musical highlights from last year. We produced an amazing concert to benefit Area Interfaith Outreach. We raised over $10, 000 and had a really wonderful evening. Church folks stepped up all over the place and, even though it was a community chorus; the evening had UUR fingerprints all over it. Mimi Bornstein, who was our music director at the time, did a great job spearheading the effort and acting as artistic director of the show. It was a great night in which everyone won.

I was blessed with the opportunity to give an invocation during the show. It was a chance to name our intention, to raise awareness and to open people up to the experience they would soon be immersed in.

Here is a copy of those words.

This is a perfect moment. This is a perfect moment because we are waking up, realizing that we are the ones we’ve been waiting for and that we can change the world with our own two hands.

Welcome everybody and thank you for joining us tonight. We are so happy to see all of you here. My name is Mark Glovin and I am the minister of the The First Universalist Church in Rockland. One of the privileges of my work is to be the public face for a dynamic community full of amazing people doing really good work in the world. This concert is one such occasion. This show is the result of many people putting a lot of skill and heart and soul to good use.

We have been focusing on becoming the change we want to see in the world. And that means putting our faith into action. It means working for change by first being open to change in ourselves. I often say I want church to be an excuse to do the things that you love. We are all here because people who are passionate about making music are using that love to do some good work in the world. We are here because this group of people can’t accept that in the year 2007 in the United States of America there are still people who are hungry or who have food insecurity. We are here because hunger is a growing problem in the mid-coast. People gathered in this room aren’t sure where their next meal is coming from and the latest surveys tell us that 6 people in the chorus and people in your row are hungry tonight.

This benefit is the result of hearing and answering a call. And through singing and weaving community the chorus and musicians have changed if only a little bit. You gathered here are also creating some small change just by being here with us tonight.

May this sharing raise awareness, may this benefit change the world a little bit for those who need the good service provided at Area Interfaith Outreach.

And May this benefit inspire you to do the things that you love
May it inspire you to use your passion to make some small difference in the world.
We can change the world with our own two hands.